The Biggest Takeaway From The Raiders First Preseason Game
The Las Vegas Raiders opened the 2026 preseason with a loss to the Arizona Cardinals and Raiders fans got some more insight into their future franchise quarterback, Fernando Mendoza. Mendoza put the majority of the blame for the loss on his own shoulders and Justin Churchill explains why this is a good and a bad thing for the rookie quarterback to believe so early in his NFL career.
Video Transcript
The Las Vegas Raiders have played their first preseason game, and unfortunately, it was a loss to Arizona Cardinals, but we learned a lot.
I'm Justin Church of AZ Sports Las Vegas, and one of the things that we learned is that Fernando Mendoza is very hard on himself, and maybe we already knew that, but this was to a different degree.
After the game, he said, "Unfortunately, I let my teammates down today, but it was a growing experience."
And you kind of love to hear that, but it is kind of, hard to hear because you don't think that the guy let anybody down.
He played really good.
On his second drive of the game, he led the team to a scoring drive.
Seventy-nine yards, hit Jack Besh on a six-yard slant to the end zone for a touchdown, and then after that, it was, a lot of the same stuff.
He, ended up actually, finding Malik Benson on a really good pass that was in a window between four defenders.
He did a lot of nice things.
He played really well.
You don't expect to hear something like this from a rookie in a preseason game when it's not all that important in terms of the record and winning or losing.
It's more about putting tape on the field and getting experience.
But Clint Kubiak said on Friday morning that he likes to hear that from Fernando Mendoza.
All of the great quarterbacks that he's been around have had that same exact mindset, that they're very hard on themselves.
They take responsibility for pretty much everything that happens on the football field, even if they weren't on the field.
And Mendoza is only gonna get better.
Clint Kubiak said that he thought Mendoza played extremely well and that he is excited to see how he even continues to grow from this, even though he thought he played really well.
So this is just a sign of a future franchise quarterback in the making.
He's mature, he's young, he gets it.
He gets what it's like and what it's about to be the guy wearing the shield for the Raiders.
And you love to hear that after, even after a preseason loss.
